Dempsey on the Bearcats, 'We're going to be fun to watch'

By
Travis Eldridge

October 17, 2013Updated Oct 17, 2013 at 11:51 PM EDT

Vestal, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Coming off a three win campaign, there aren't many more places to go but up for the BU men's basketball program. But enter four freshman expected to play major minutes, add the leading scorers from the past two seasons into the equation, and expectations are a little higher than one might think.

The Bearcats return the team's leading scorer from two year's ago, Rob Mansell, who sat out all of last season after knee surgery. BU also has the league's second leading scorer from last year, Jordan Reed, back on the court.

All those pieces, on paper, make for what looks like a fun team to watch. A team Mansell is comparing to one NFL offense in particular.

"We're like the Philadelphia Eagles, because of all the running that we do," said Mansell. "I hope coach doesn't get mad at me for saying that, but I've literally had people come up to me asking me if I'm ok because they saw us up here running so much. But that's the price it is to play at the level we want to play."

"I think we're going to be fun to watch," second year coach Tommy Dempsey said. "I think we're going to be, you're going to scratch your head sometimes because we're so young. And there are going to be nights where we probably don't play well, but I think we're going to have a lot of nights where we play really well."

The youth around the team also has some lofty expectations for the Bearcats. At Thursday's media day, players were talking about a big turnaround from last year's three-win season.

"We're a lot better than people think we are. We have a lot of young guys obviously, but we've got a lot of talent as well," said Reed. "I'm just going to guide my talent, and hopefully we can contend for a championship in the America East."

"We think we can possibly have a 20-win season to be honest," said freshman guard Marlon Beck II. "Coming off of last year with three wins with all the weapons we have now, we really think we can prove a lot of people wrong."

The Bearcats will learn a little more about themselves when they host Bloomsburg November 2 in the team's first exhibition of the season.